DODGY journalism is not hard to spot, especially when it's about a subject with which you're familiar.
A prime example comes from today's bbc.co.uk 'Most popular stories now' list and concerns pike making life miserable for the other residents of a Cornish pond. So what's new...?
'Killer pike removed from Par duck pond' reports that pike have been eating roach, rudd and tench in the pond near St Blazey and snatching fish being reeled in by anglers, again, nothing new there.
Numbers of the species – not native to Cornwall according to the story – have been “getting out of hand” and Environment Agency Fisheries Officers have had to use “electronic devices” to stun the fish so they can be removed.
Presumably this refers to electrofishing, a widely used method surely not too difficult for the journalist to convey to the reader?
The article goes on to paint a portrait of the pike as a vicious killing machine capable of taking out ducklings and water voles, but fails to mention the important role it carries out in the ecosystem.
I guess it must be a slow day at the BBC as I can't quite work out where the news is in this less-than-insightful account of the situation. I wonder what will happen when the BBC finds out what perch, zander, chub and catfish get up to...
Click here to be amused/bemused/confused by or just to read the original.
No comments:
Post a Comment